1. Technical Field
The present methods are related to identifying matching user-directory records in a database and, more particularly, to an improved searching technique that reduces the number of keystrokes and the number of server calls needed to identify matching records.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the development of the telephone more than one hundred years ago, the prevalence and importance of telephones have continued to grow. For most of that time, users have used circuit-switched telephones to communicate over circuit-switched networks such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
Eventually, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems were developed to serve the needs of, for example, businesses with many employees. PBX systems typically include a central entity that connects callers within an office system to each other, and to the PSTN via “outside lines.” PBX systems are typically arranged such that each user has assigned to them a phone number such as 555-555-1234. An outside caller calling this number would be routed by the central entity to the telephone associated with the “1234” extension. A user within the system typically would be able to reach the same endpoint by dialing only the extension.
Certain features have been developed for use in PBX systems. For example, a “caller ID” feature has been developed whereby, when a user having an extension such as 1234 calls another user having an extension such as 5678, the called party's telephone may display information related to the caller, such as the “1234” extension and/or the caller's name. To provide such features, telephones have been developed specifically for PBX implementations. These telephones typically have a display, such as an LCD, as well as some number of buttons designed to correspond to some number of provided features.
Recently, the popularity of the Internet has risen dramatically. Along with the rise of the Internet has come Internet or packet-based telephony, also known as IP (Internet Protocol) telephony, or VoIP (Voice over IP). In packet-based telephony, users' audible inputs are converted to digital data, which is then packetized, or broken into multiple packets, and transmitted using a packet-switched protocol such as IP. Incoming packet data is then arranged in the proper sequence, converted to analog sounds, and output to a user. If one party is using a packet-based telephone and the other party is using a conventional telephone connected to the PSTN, a media gateway may convert between the two types of data transmission.
Increasingly, companies and other institutions are transitioning from PBX systems to packet-based telephony systems. Since most of these institutions already have packet-switched networks to manage data communications such as e-mail, employing a packet-based telephony system obviates the need to also have a circuit-switched network for telephony purposes such as telephone calls and fax messaging. Predictably, packet-based telephones have been developed for use in these systems. Like their PBX counterparts, these packet-based telephones typically have at least a display screen (such as an LCD) and a number of buttons, which may be programmable to provide a number of features.
Among the features that have been developed for packet-based telephones is a user directory. To use this feature, a user would typically press a button to launch a user-directory application. The packet-based telephone may then display one or more user-directory records (e.g., name and extension). The user may scroll through the records and/or use the telephone's number pad to jump to entries beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet. Furthermore, the user typically has the option to place a call to an extension or telephone number associated with a displayed record, perhaps by pressing one or more buttons or by picking up a handset.